Lato: 90% of my players won’t leave Kaduna Utd

Kaduna United chief coach, Saleh Tanko Lato has said that he will retain majority of his players for the next season if he get 100% commitment from them.

The former Ranchers Bees of Kaduna ace told SportingLife that the team will try to avoid the difficulty witnessed last season when a majority of experienced players left for other clubs.

The former Iwuanyau National of Owerri star, who replaced the former Technical Adviser Maurice Cooreman when the Belgian left for Warri Wolves, said he would build a team around his present crop of players for the next season for the sake of continuity.

Two weeks to the end of 2011/2012 season the team parted ways with ten players.

“The team has resumed training and we have started screening of new players. We want to do everything fast and by the end of the week we will know who will stay and who will go,” Lato, who captained the Home-Based Eagles under Clemence Westerhorf in 1990, told SportingLife.

“We don’t want the repeat of last season when we lost most of our valuable players to other clubs. Two weeks to end the 2011/2012 season, we sacked 10 players and worked on the rest to achieve what we were able to achieve last season. Majority of players are new and, if I have my way, I will keep 90% of them for the sake of continuity and to build around them for next season, which I believe will make my job very easy.

“At the moment we don’t know who among of them may have the interest of moving to another club, because you can’t predict players. That is why I want to sort this out quickly. But if I get 100% commitment and assurance from them, majority of them will stay.”

The former Zamalek of Egypt player also informed SportingLife of his intention to beef-up his squad with ten more players.

“As it is now, there is no board on ground and we will present our proposal to the ministry. They (ministry) are the policy makers and we don’t know what their intention will be, whether they will agree with us or not. I think 35 players will be okay for the team to prosecute our programme next season, meaning that we may sign at least 10 more players.”